Applesauce

I've already blogged about making salsa and freezing peaches, but another one of those (what do I call them?) Mormony-Martha Stewart things we like to do is make applesauce. Once you're used to homemade applesauce, you really can't eat store-bought (this is ditto for homemade jam, too--don't ever try to give Abs store-bought jam-she'll let you know what she thinks of it). Like with the peaches and salsa ingredients, we used to pick apples at Grandma and Grandpa Stapley's and then spend the day making applesauce with them (I already called, Julie, but you know we miss you!).
So yesterday, while Chris was at work, I piled the kids in the van and headed for a small orchard just west of Eudora, KS. The kids LOVED picking apples and quickly filled up 3 buckets with them (they would have done more, but I had to put some kind of limit on it).

Now we're used to picking as many apples as we want and not worrying about how much they weigh (and consequently paying for said apples), so I didn't think too much about filling 3 buckets full. When they were weighed, it totaled 75 lbs!!

When Chris got home we started on the apples--washing, coring, and cooking, washing jars and getting out all of the canning supplies. Kierst and Abs took turns putting apples through the strainer. Our kitchen smelled divine!

Kierst washed, I sliced and Lisi filled up the pots with the next batch.

Abs put the lids on the jars of applesauce and Kierst tightened the rings.

Then we had to sample the finished product--YUM! All except Lisi, that is. She is our picky eater and refuses to try almost everything. This is her "No, I don't want any" pose. Then after a few more minutes, she decided to try some after all. The verdict: delicious!We canned 18 jars. Of course, we still have about 50 lbs of apples to go, but by 8 last night we were done with apples. This week we'll be freezing apple pie filling, of course more applesauce, and today Chris is making an apple pie for Sunday dessert.